We've been rather spoilt with keepers when you think about it, quite a few of ours have been really great keepers for us when you think about it.
Not sure if its a good idea to go completely defensive against West Ham. Remember we have won four on the trot at home and apart from the Barnsley blip we have been the form team. West Ham also had a bad mid-week result and I'm sure they will be worried about facing us at the KC. They will feel a lot more confident if they see us set up defensively. Sometimes attack is the best defence and the team have every reason to be up-beat about our chances of winning this one on our own patch.
We should certainly not set up defensively, biggest mistake ever, if the year and a half in the premiership since things went stale taught us anything, it's that defence is the worst form of defence. You need outlets and forward movement to keep possession of the ball, you need players pushing forwards in order to do that. Sitting back and packing the midfield just invites pressure onto us and makes it a mammoth task to retain possession, and a team like West Ham will take advantage of that. We should look to control the game and put them on the back foot from the off, if we can get them to start sitting back a bit the game is ours for the taking. Lets just hope Chester and Hobbs are on form to deal with the route 1 football to big bunnies like Carew and Cole, I fear this could be a game where Chester would be showed up for his height and could be a real test as to whether he'll cut it as a top center back at the highest level.
Fully agree with this; inviting the likes of WH onto us would be a mistake. We must go for the 1st goal which will be very important in this game. Hope we are full of energy and close them down for the full 90 mins+.
I agree with most of this. As I said in the score prediction thread though, Carew is doubtful for saturday with a knee injury. I think Cole was only on the bench in the week as well, although I don't know why
Update - but won't be clear till tomorrow, after training: http://www.hullcityafc.net/page/NewsDetail/0,,10338~2504753,00.html
According to the YP, McLean is OK, but Basso still doubtful: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/spor...ll_city_v_west_ham_united_team_news_1_3940762
